Advent: The Age of the Church
Rev. Mr. Shawn Gould
Originally posted on 12/13/2009

We are presently in the middle of the liturgical season of Advent, a time when the Church prays for Christ’s second coming in glory and prepares to remember and give thanks for his first coming in poverty. What I would like to offer for your reflection as we move closer to the Solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord is the close relationship between Advent and the life and mission of the Church since Christ’s Ascension.

I suspect that most people think of Advent, if they think of it at all, solely in terms of a period of anticipation of Christmas Day and its associated exchange of presents. However, the Church through her liturgy first directs us to an anticipation of Christ’s second coming. One might recall that in Acts St. Luke tells us that “two men” clothed in “white robes,” who have been traditionally taken to be angels, tell the disciples that Christ will return “in the same way” as they saw him taken into heaven. (Acts 1:10-11) Ever since that moment the Church has prayed for the promised second-coming of Christ.

This yearning for Christ’s return to earth in his proper body was the focus of the First Sunday of Advent. The Gospel for that Sunday was from Luke. In it, our Lord tells the disciples to keep watch for the signs that will indicate that He is about to come to the earth “with power and great glory.” (Luke 21:27) The disciples, and we who follow them, were exhorted to be vigilant and prepared for meeting the Lord when he comes to judge the nations.

In the Second Sunday of Advent, the Gospel reading continues to remind us of this state of preparation, this time focusing on John the Baptist, the great forerunner of Christ. John, the last of the prophets, was given the task of proclaiming the coming of the Lord and exhorting people to ready themselves for him by repenting of their sins.
The Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, is given over to rejoicing for the Lord’s care of Israel and His Church. Our expectation of Christ’s coming is to be joyful, for he comes as our king who will give us justice and restore us to his grace.

The final period of Advent, its fourth week, is focused on the coming of Christ in the Nativity. Mary, bearing Jesus in her womb, meets her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist. Elizabeth, St. Luke tells us, was filled with the Holy Spirit and rejoiced that her Lord and his mother have come to her. Her joy is the joy of the people of Israel in having the long-promised Messiah finally arrive.

And so we can see that the time of Advent is a time between two poles: Christ’s first coming as a child and Christ’s second coming in triumph. It is a period of tension and expectation. This corresponds to our life in the Church now. Christ’s resurrection from the dead began the “end times,” the time of final preparation for the Kingdom of God. It is a time of transition from the first period of preparation, the time of Israelites and the prophets.

Consider this brief history of the world as outlined below.


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First, there was the time of Paradise; we don’t know how long it lasted. Then Adam and Eve committed the Original Sin. This started a progression of time that led to death. However, God did not leave humanity in this state. He began to prepare them for his coming in the flesh. First, he called Abraham and promised to beget a great nation from him. Then he called Moses to lead his chosen people into the land set aside for them. He sent them prophets to call them back to the worship of the one true God. Finally, after the long years of the decline of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, God the Father sent God the Son into the world through Mary’s fiat. With Christ’s Incarnation, Passion, Death and Resurrection a new time is begun. This time has a different end than that started by the Fall of Adam and Eve. This time-line leads to eternal life.

One might ask why the Lord ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Why didn’t he simply start his reign two thousand years ago? With God Himself, who is all goodness and justice, personally ruling the world, wouldn’t we all be better off? The answer, at least in part, is that we needed further preparation for living in the Kingdom. Life in the Kingdom is not simply an extension into eternity of our present life. The Fathers of the Church described the purpose of the Incarnation of Christ as follows: he became man (human), so that we might become God. Now, they did not mean by this that we actually become God Himself. What they meant is that the new life promised us in Christ takes part in God’s own life. Now, in order to participate in God’s own life, we need to have a new principle infused in us—a new power given to us. And this principle or power is given to us through the sacraments, particularly baptism, confirmation and Eucharist.

This time of the Church between the first and second comings, this period of life in which we prepare for the Kingdom, is a time of the sacramental presence of Christ. Christ is the eternal God. So even before the Incarnation he had a relationship with humanity. He, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, created and has always sustained the world in being. He was present to the world through the Holy Spirit who spoke through the prophets and through the ministry of the angels. When he took on humanity in the Incarnation, he did not cease to be God. But he did begin a new way of being present and relating to his chosen people, namely in the flesh. For a brief time he lived in the Middle East. After his Ascension, he continues to have his proper, resurrected body and soul. He did not cease to be human. But he is now present through the Holy Spirit in a new way, through the ministry of the Church. And this is actually a good thing. Through baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist, as well as the other sacraments, we are in the process of being divinized, of being made into a more glorious and perfect kind of human being—one capable of heavenly life.

I would encourage all of us to take advantage of this time of Advent to renew our commitment to Christ. Let us join with the Church throughout the ages in anticipating Christ’s coming and rejoicing in his saving presence. This time is given to us so that we might cooperate with God in our salvation. Let us make the most of it.